It remains one of — if not the toughest — challenge in Test cricket.
Winning away on the subcontinent is something akin to the holy grail for touring teams.
So many have tried and, especially of late, so many teams have failed.
Australia may have brushed aside South Africa and West Indies in home conditions this summer, but face a vastly different test in India this month if they are to win back the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
India's stunning record at home
India is, it goes without saying, very good at home.
In the past decade, India has lost just two Tests on home soil from a total of 42 matches: when Australia won by 333 runs in Pune after Nathan Lyon and Steve O'Keefe spun India out for just 107 in the fourth innings in 2017; and when Joe Root's 218 helped England to a 227-run victory in Chennai in 2021.
When the six draws are taken into account, India has an unbeaten record of a whopping 95.24 per cent at home in the past 10 years.
To put that into perspective, Australia is the next best, going unbeaten in 88.24 per cent of their home Tests during the same time period, with New Zealand following at 87.80.
With stats like that, it follows that India has not lost a series in the past decade on home soil.
The last time India did lose a series was against England in 2012, 2-1.
The time before that? Australia by the same 2-1 scoreline in 2004.
Since that 2004 victory by Australia, India has won 25 out of the 30 series it has played — with two defeats and three draws.
Overall, Australia has won four of its 14 Test series in India, but only one of those series victories has come in the past 10 visits during the past 44 years.
With an overall record of played 50, won 13, drawn 15 and one famous tie in 1986, Australia has not done badly against India — theirs is the fourth-best win-loss record behind England, Pakistan and West Indies, which incredibly has an overall winning record against India in India.
But with just one win in the past 15 years and 14 Tests, Australia is very much up against it.
Spin is key … or is it?
Australia has picked four specialist spin bowlers as part of its 18-man squad and there's good reason for that.
Three of the top four wicket takers in Test matches for Australia in India are spinners: Richie Benaud (52 at 18.38), Shane Warne (34 at 43.11) and Nathan Lyon (34 at 30.58) — West Australian quick Graham McKenzie (34 at 19.26) is the odd one out.
Lyon has been excellent in India — his average in Test matches there is 30.58, favourably comparable to his career average of 31.65.
In 2017, when Australia last toured, his average was 25.26, when he took 19 wickets in the series.
In comparison to his fast bowling colleagues, Lyon is the only player whose average is better in India than overall.
However, Ed Cowan told the Grandstand cricket podcast that Australia needed to be careful not to put too much faith in spin when Australia's biggest strength remains pace.
"Australia's last series win in India was built on fast bowling, not spin," he said.
"We get into this trap occasionally, if you can take air speed to India, it's a huge bonus."
Justin Langer, who played in that 2004 series, agreed.
"We went with the quicker bowlers and the ball reverse swung, and we were just ruthless with our discipline, and that discipline helped us get over the line."
Spin is probably still key
Fast bowling does not come more disciplined than that provided by Hazlewood, Cummins and Boland, while the air-speed can be provided by rapid but untested West Australian quick Todd Murphy, and veteran quick Mitch Starc.
That being said, it is more than likely spin will still be the biggest threat on pitches that are expected to be prepared to turn from day one.
On the past two Test tours by non-Asian teams in India — England and New Zealand — spin bowlers have had far more success than their seam counterparts.
When England played its past four-Test series in India, fewer than 25 per cent of all wickets in the series fell via pace bowling.
In that series, England took 21 of 58 wickets through a pace attack that lacked neither accuracy nor air speed itself, featuring James Anderson (8 at 15.87), Ben Stokes (5 at 30.6), Ollie Stone (4 at 17) and Jofra Archer (4 at 30.5). Stuart Broad went wicketless in his two Tests.
India's seamers, by contrast, took 13 of 80 wickets.
More recently, New Zealand's two-Test series showed a similar pattern, with 26 per cent of wickets falling to seamers across the series — helped by Ajaz Patel's stunning 10-wicket haul in the first innings of the second Test at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
Compare that to Australia's victorious series in 2004, when the wicket split between spinners and seamers was 60:40.
However, when England last completed a series win in India, the split was, again, roughly 75 per cent spin.
Unhappy hunting grounds
Australia will play in Nagpur, Delhi, Dharamsala and Ahmedabad on this tour.
From nine matches at those grounds, Australia has just two wins and three draws.
Australia has played two Tests in Nagpur with a 50-per-cent win-loss record.
After winning the third Test in 2004, famous for controversy about a pitch seemingly prepared to favour Australia's seamers, the Australians fell to a 172-run defeat in 2008, a match made notable for it being the debut of Jason Krejza, who took 8-215 in his first Test innings, followed by 4-143 in the second innings.
India is unbeaten in Nagpur in Tests since 2010 but has only played four Tests at the venue in that time.
India's real fortress, though, is in the capital, at the Arun Jaitley stadium, where it has won all but six of its 34 Tests since 1948.
Australia's one win in Delhi came in 1959 by an innings and 127 as Neil Harvey ensured Australia only needed to bat once, scoring 114 as Australia made 468 in response to India's first innings score of 135.
Skipper Richie Benaud took 5-76 in the second innings to restrict India to 206 all out, having also taken 3-0 in the first innings.
India have played 28 times at the venue since then, and only lost five times, most recently against the West Indies in 1987.
Australia has been the only Test visitor to one of Test cricket's most picturesque venues, Dharamsala, losing by eight wickets in 2017 despite Steve Smith's 111 and first innings half centuries by David Warner and Matthew Wade.
Nathan Lyon took 5-92 in the second innings of that match, but Matt Renshaw won't have fond memories — as opener he scored just 1 and 8.
India is unbeaten in its past 12 Tests at the venue, winning 10 with two draws.
Australia has not yet played at the Narendra Modi Stadium — renowned as the biggest cricket stadium in the world with a capacity of 132,000 — and neither has it played a Test in its previous incarnation as the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium.
India has only lost twice in 14 visits there — and beat England there in three successive Tests by 9 wickets, 10 wickets and an innings and 25 runs in 2021.
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